Sean Hannity, who earns tens of millions of dollars every year and aggressively evicts his own tenants who get behind on their rent, thinks government workers earning a fraction of what he does should suffer the “inconvenience” of going without pay in order to help super-wealthy Donald Trump get taxpayer funding for his border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.
According to Forbes, Hannity earned $36 million in 2018, alone. That does not seem to account for earnings from his real estate empire. Yet while Hannity oh, so sincerely professed “sympathy” for those who are “inconvenienced” by going without their paychecks, he did not offer to go without any of his own earnings to help tide them over. He did not even offer to go easier on any of his own working class tenants he so zealously evicts when they get behind on their rents, even when it’s due to hospitalization.
Hannity spoke with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Monday night after Donald Trump’s Oval Office address. Predictably, Hannity ignored the fact checking on his own network, which preceded his show, in order to bolster Bedtime BFF Trump and perpetuate the fear mongering lies about immigrants.
Why Graham wanted in on the con is a mystery to me. But he laughably said about Trump’s address, “This is the most presidential I’ve seen President Trump. It was compelling and everything he said was true.” And, “Illegal immigration’s on the rise because our policies are attracting people here.” FACT CHECK: Fox News had just noted that government statistics find illegal immigration is on the decline.
According to USA Today, Graham is one of the least wealthy U.S. senators. But he's currently earning a comfy salary of $174,000.
Graham and Hannity dismissed the stress and hardship of the affected government workers (nearly 14% of whom earn less than $50,000 a year) as no biggie. Even as the pair feigned sympathy, they also suggested that it is the patriotic duty of government workers to sacrifice their financial safety nets for the cause. Yet neither Hannity nor Graham indicated they’d be making any of their own sacrifices.
HANNITY: I know it is inconvenient for those furloughed employees [Graham laughed]. I acknowledge and I can sympathize with them. I know their checks are going to be delayed in some cases and – but it’s a partial government shutdown. Essential services are up and running. And that constitutes what, two-thirds to seventy percent of the government stays open.
GRAHAM: Yeah.
HANNITY: And I do want these people that have been furloughed to get back money, etcetera. But the point is, if the president doesn’t take the stand here, fully, do you see any other path that he can use, that he will get the money to stop the crimes from happening on our southern border? The drug trafficking, human trafficking, some criminal elements that want to cross over our border?
GRAHAM: I’ve been dealing with this since 2006. This is the best chance I’ve seen to get a deal. The president made a compelling case tonight for more border security and I think he is right to ask for more money to secure our border.
As to the government employees, I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this mess but you’ll get your back pay. You’re gonna be fully compensated. Ms. Singh [wife of a police officer killed by an undocumented immigrant] is not going to get her husband back. To all those people who have lost loved ones from illegal immigration, your loved ones are not coming back. So I’m bound and determined to see this thing through.
Yes, some (not all) workers will get their back pay. But in the meanwhile, they have to feed their families, get medicines, pay mortgages and rents, car payments, insurance, etc. Apparently, Hannity and Graham think that's a great deal in return for Trump's "big, beautiful wall."
HANNITY: The question is here, we’re talking about on the one hand we’re gonna have some people that work for our government that are inconvenienced. I am sympathetic to that. But I am also sympathetic to the parents that were on this program last night. I’m sympathetic to the five-month-old little boy of a police officer in California that will never see his father for the rest of his life. And I’m sympathetic to the victims of crime. Are your fellow Republicans willing to say life and death is more important than a delayed paycheck and an inconvenience?
[…]
GRAHAM: To my Republican colleagues, this is the best chance we’ll ever have to help President Trump get border wall funding, steel barrier funding and at the same time fix the loop holes. … If we’ll stand firm, put deals on the table that make sense, we will win this on behalf of the American people. But if we undercut the president, that’s the end of his presidency and the end of our party and we deserve to be punished if we give in now.
Watch Hannity and Graham all but openly admit that they don’t mind making working people suffer for the sake of partisan politics above, from the January 8, 2019 Hannity.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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